Stanford and Arc Institute researchers unveiled Evo 2, a DNA model that can generate viruses from scratch. Separately, Anthropic reported cases of people apparently using Claude for potentially dangerous biological research, saying it banned the users and strengthened safeguards.
AI-designed viruses could help researchers develop bacteriophages that target antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which the article describes as responsible for more than a million deaths each year. A 2025 study cited by Popular Mechanics found that an unguarded Moremi Bio Agent model generated about 1,020 new toxic proteins and 5,000 toxic small molecules, including outputs resembling ricin, diphtheria toxin and certain snake-venom proteins.
Views on how immediate the threat is remain divided: some warn of a potentially massive disaster, while others say the reported examples amount only to basic research, Science reported. Anthropic and OpenAI have backed a letter calling for stricter rules on companies that sell made-to-order DNA strands.
